Comparing the former sacrifices with what Jesus did for His faithful ones, the author of the letter speaks about the traditional...
Comparing the former sacrifices with what Jesus did for His faithful ones, the author of the letter speaks about the traditional Yahwist worship, with all its forms, as an earthly image of another reality, the reality of the Kingdom, and he applies this also to sacrifice (v. 23). Now, according to him, we have the possibility through Christ to share in the Kingdom itself (v. 24). And in the Kingdom the endlessness of those partial purifications and partial sanctifications, which alone could be available to a person in our still untransformed world, is removed and loses its meaning (vv. 25-26). The author of the letter draws a fairly clear parallel between the life of the Kingdom in its relation to the life of the untransformed world, on the one hand, and the corresponding ways of communion with God, on the other. No human being can become a living Torah, be sanctified to the point of the complete transformation of human nature, and contain the Kingdom in all its fullness. Therefore the only means left to any priest for purifying and sanctifying both himself and others was sacrificial blood sanctified by God.
The human being remained human; in God's hands he was only an imperfect instrument of incomplete purification and partial sanctification. Hence the bad infinity of the process: in this way it is impossible either to tear sin out by the root or to transform human nature completely. Only the Messiah, who became the living Torah and contained in Himself the whole fullness of the Kingdom, and therefore the fullness of God, was able to change the situation qualitatively. Entering the Kingdom and sharing in its life changes a person once and for all. Here there is no longer room for constantly repeated partial purifications and regular sanctifications that never reach fullness. Meanwhile, among second-generation Christians there had already begun, apparently, to spread attitudes that were essentially Old Testament ones, extending to Christianity the former, pre-Christian ideas about spiritual life. It is apparently against these that the author of the letter argues, reminding his readers that the sacrifice of Christ, despite the similarity of the name, is fundamentally different from the former sacrifices. Unlike them, it is not repeated again and again. It is the beginning of the history of the Kingdom, which will be completed by its triumph and by the return of the Savior (vv. 27-28).
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9:23 Therefore - That is, it plainly appears from what has been said. It was necessary - According to the appointment of God.That the tabernacle and all its utensils, which were patterns, shadowy representations, of things in heaven, should be purified by these - Sacrifices and sprinklings. But the heavenly things themselves - Our heaven - born spirits: what more this may mean we know not yet. By better sacrifices than these - That is, by a better sacrifice, which is here opposed to all the legal sacrifices, and is expressed plurally, because it includes the signification of them all, and is of so much more eminent virtue.
9:24 For Christ did not enter into the holy place made with hands - He never went into the holy of holies at Jerusalem, the figure of the true tabernacle in heaven, Heb 8:2.But into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us - As our glorious high priest and powerful intercessor.
9:26 For then he must often have suffered from the foundation of the world - This supposes,
- That by suffering once he atoned for all the sins whichhad been committed from the foundation of the world.
- That he could not have atoned for them without suffering.
At the consummation of the ages - The sacrifice of Christ divides the whole age or duration of the world into two parts, and extends its virtue backward and forward, from this middle point wherein they meet to abolish both the guilt and power of sin.9:27 After this, the judgment - Of the great day.At the moment of death every man's final state is determined.But there is not a word in scripture of a particular judgment immediately after death.
9:28 Christ having once died to bear the sins - The punishment due to them. Of many - Even as many as are born into the world. Will appear the second time - When he comes to judgment. Without sin - Not as he did before, bearing on himself the sins of many, but to bestow everlasting salvation.